Isn’t it interesting to note how gaming as we know it seems to have come full-circle? I mean you take a look at how things started out – with the most basic of games really not inspiring much by way of what could constitute the hours of fun games today offer, evolving through some games which had the world sitting up and noticing and ultimately captivating the world’s imagination with some titles that even went on to create entire careers and markets in and around gaming.
I particularly remember watching a games preview and review show called Cybernet and reading magazines such as New Age Gaming (the “Nag Mag”) and the typical game review format would discuss elements such as the storyline, difficulty-level (challenging games are more fun) and graphics, amongst a couple of other pointers. They would also go on about which platform the title is available on, with some of the bigger franchises diversifying across all major consoles and on the PC. There are even different ways to play classic games from years back now, either with some game developers rebooting old games or people looking online to play something such as this paper mario the thousand year door rom or the others that can be found.
Gamers want to get something out of their gaming exploits these days, which is why you have the likes of bingo promotions available flying off the web pages on which they’re offered, as they allow online bingo players to get something back in the form of a welcome bonus or some extra credit to play with.
The mark of a game’s progression however was largely attributed to the graphics – how much closer it was to looking like reality. I specifically remember perhaps in the early 2000s just marvelling at the “wikid” graphics of the latest Grand Tourismo title at the time, GT5! It was unlike anything I’d ever seen in my life and I also remember thinking that perhaps just a mere 5-10 years later we would be playing games where there are no “graphics” as such to rate, because my belief was that we would be playing with graphics that are nothing short of the real thing.
Like in my mind if you would be playing something like FIFA 2012 then you would be controlling real-looking players as if someone was actually watching a live match on television.
That didn’t happen though, as you might very well know, but that just goes to show how gaming has come full-circle. It’s not necessarily a bad thing though and what it is really is that gamers all over the world have evolved to look beyond all the unnecessary thrills and spills, seeking to focus on the core activity of gaming. It sounds a little serious, given the fact that I’m after all just talking about gaming, doesn’t it?
It is that serious though because in the modern world we live it’s no longer a very clever thing to do in the name of entertainment to just waste hours upon hours gaming without it giving you anything constructive to take away from the activity in return. I mean so what if you have the high score to end all high scores? Who cares?
The most popular games today are the simplest ones which may very well look like they’re taking us all a step back in time with their seemingly culled sophistication.
